Yesterday I had my first run in with a person who had this. They didn't know they were dyslexic until junior year of high school. The guy is now a sales rep for the company where I am employed. He asked me if I could check a memo he was sending out to all the hospitals. When I read through the first sentence, I was stunned. He left out words, 'ed's, and there were spelling errors galore. All I had to do was look at him, and he explained. He's got the composition skills of a 3rd grader. His is a case where the speech isn't affected, but his writing skills are to the point where he can't see obvious spelling and grammar errors.

I had the chance to go through with a red pen and use all the cool teacher signs like triple underlines and insert marks. I felt like a Token.

Today, I was able to put a human face with the disease that afflicts so many- Dyslexia. He assured me that he has been this way since birth and that, when he has kids, he hopes they aren't impaired with the same lifestlye that faces him. Now that I have a new compassion for the people I once jeered at and called 'dissies', I can see that they need to be protected with the same rights with which we have been endowed. That is why I believe dyslexuals should have the right to marry, just as we literosexuals enjoy.

A colleauge of mine from grad school is dyslexic and colorblind. He now writes journal reports about his research with red and green optically- activated proteins. It's pretty inspiring. Too bad he's a big dork.

That would suck to have such a condition. I wish him luck through his life. I know that would be hard.